Groundhog Day

Anybody feel like the movie Groundhog Day lately?  I wake up and I remember that today is going to be a lot like yesterday, and last week.  

I was reminded of something after a conversation with my mother last night, who by the way, looks like she has beat COVID-19 at the age of 90 (thanks for your prayers).   She is always so positive.  And she told me yesterday that she was expecting surprises from God and that her song of the day was “Oh what a beautiful morning.”

Her nursing home is dreary on a good day.  The space she shares with a roommate, separated by a curtain is small.  But now it’s even bleaker.  More than a dozen people there have died in the last three weeks.  The nursing staff is exhausted with the precautions they are taking.   For several days she couldn’t leave her room for her daily walk down the hall, or go to the lounge to watch TV.   She has had meals delivered to her room for almost a month instead of being able to eat at her table with the same people she’s eaten with for a couple years.

And yet she can wake up singing “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” — not because she can tell — she hasn’t been outside in a month and she doesn’t have a window she can look out — but because she has CHOSEN to be. positive.  A decision, she tells me, she made a a long time ago.

She has learned something that I need to learn.   Regardless of how many things seem the same from day to day, God’s mercies are brand new every single morning.

Check out this familiar verse from Lamentations (ironically, since the name of the book itself indicates that it was a place where Jeremiah whined a lot).

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;[b]
    his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.”

I get to choose how I view today.   Will I focus on my situation, the rain and the clouds outside my window and the monotony of our current situation….

Or will I focus on God, putting my hope in Him, and remembering that His mercies are new this morning and will be every.  single.  morning.

My favorite hymn of all times: